Providing Tools for Ongoing Assessments

With the current climate of accountability, teachers are expected to improve performance on state assessments. Some states are providing educators with tools to gauge student progress and target instruction. Formative assessments and item banks are two tools teachers can use throughout the year to check their students’ progress against benchmarks of knowledge and understanding. In Quality Counts 2008, the EPE Research Center found that 21 states provide educators with formative assessments and/or item banks linked to state standards for the 2007-08 school year. For more state-by-state data, explore our Education Counts database.